I’ve been obsessed with NicoNama Cruise the last few days just cause of the wonderful randomness you get out of it. You don’t always have to understand Japanese, but it helps. And if there is a broadcast you like, you can visit that one with the button at the end that says 「この放送を見に行く」.

Sure, it isn’t quite as personal as chatroulette, but I will tell you now, there is a lot less male genitalia. Also, a cute Japanese girl comes up every once in a while. So give it a try! (BTW, if you need a NicoDouga account, I’m giving them out!)

Technorati Tags: ニコ生, ニコ生クルーズ, chat, Japanese girls, live chat, NicoDou, NicoNama, NicoNama Cruise, NicoNicoDouga, NicoNicoNama, NicoNicoNamahousou, webcam

In short, I hardly ever paid him the time of day. Sure, he’d he’d occasionally talk about some cool think on some Japanese show like ナニコレ珍百景 (which filled the void left by トリビアの泉’s cancellation) and I’d get phone calls to explain what Japan is thinking, but again, I gave him the benefit of the doubt. But now… there is this:

(YouTube, CNN)

To give you some background, no one knows how the shadow Bad Apple animation was made. We know it was inspired by the silhouette iPod ads, but it has never been revealed how it was done. Theories of MMD usage and motion capture abound, but in the end, it is still a mystery.

Recently, a photography student then made a fantastic stop motion animation as a project out of printed frames of Bad Apple:

(YouTube)

Now, Mr. Levs here, he says about the photo project video, and I quote, “This is how they made it.”

Oh man. Seriously? He thinks that this is the making of BadApple??? He is correct about Bad Apple being #1 for weeks and weeks, but does that mean this guy has a NicoDou account?! If he got it though my service, I sincerely apologize to the world for this. But, if he can get a NicoDou account, can he at least take two seconds to do some fact checking with a friend who can read Japanese? Hell, CNN, please hire someone bilingual as your Japanese “viral” video guy (as a side note, the phrase viral video makes me want to puke chunks, much like a bad apple might).

Anyway, this guy went from an annoyance on a channel I never watch to #1 on NicoDou.

Of course, there are people who think he isn’t stupid, but rather is performing a 釣り (tsuri) the likes of which the world has never seen. I really would love to believe that, but I really think he just has no idea what the fuck he is talking about.

Technorati Tags: animation, バカ, ⑨, Bad Apple, Cirno News Network, CNN, 釣り, Josh Levs, NicoNicoDouga, photography, stop motion, touhou, tsuri, viral videos, 東方

ダブルラリアット (Dabururariatto) is a NicoDou classic. YouTube user rockleetist made an English version and put it up on NicoDou recently. It rocketed up the charts and is the first time I’ve seen so many comments in English on NicoDou.

In any case, if any of my readers are worried about trying to break into NicoNicoDouga, this is a fantastic way to do it.

Technorati Tags: ダブルラリアット, Double Lariat, english, gaijin, gaikokujin, Megurine Luka, music, NicoDou, NicoNicoDouga, rockleetist, vocaloid, youtube

And my response? I definitely felt a lot more insulted by this than most of the times I’ve been called 外人. It really belittles my 12 years of studying Japanese, my time living there, my respect for the culture and peoples, and generally the entire direction I’ve taken my life.

I also think it is why I spend more time on ニコニコ動画 (NicoNicoDouga) than a lot of the English-speaking Internets. I’m interacting with people who don’t know or care that I’m an outsider. They (seem to) respect the fact that I have taken the time to learn Japanese. There’s even a community cheering R and myself on to make more videos.

Actually, it’s true that a lot of people on YouTube have been very supportive, but a lot of it boils down to, “When are you going back to Japan.” The truth is, I really don’t know if I’m going back to Japan. And even if I did, I might not make videos without my partners, Rahman and DrLuka.

What I’m trying to say here is be respectful. Just remember what しじみ (shijimi) stands for; し（信じる）じ（自分の）み（道）, or “Believe in your own path.” I know how annoying little otaku can be. Hell, I was one 10 years ago. But I’ve grown up, I have a family, I have a job, and I do my little videos here in America now. No, I don’t get punched for what I do. People are generally friendly wherever you go.

And I really would like to believe that about the Internet as well.

Technorati Tags: Internet, japan, life, NicoNicoDouga, rant, respect, wapanese, weeaboo, youtube

10.

Although Bad Apple didn’t even warrant a real entry from me this year (it did get a twitter update however), it was pretty much the biggest video of this year. I give it 10 for being awesome, but way overplayed.

9.

There was a major RED ZONE explosion around early Feb. They are all awesome, but Shuzo has a special place in my heart (Although the K-ON! one was pretty close).

8.

This Cirno video was very influential this year. My two favorite mads off this one were the Shuzo one and the K-ON! one (apparently I have very particular tastes).

7.

The Training-type MADs were all the rage, but this one closed the book on them. It was perfect. If you aren’t an Eva fan, then I apologize.

6.

2009 saw the birth of Hammer Day, which is the 11th of every single month. This was the last by the original Hammer Guy and still the best IMHO.

5.

K-ON! was another big part of 2009, and this was the MAD that I couldn’t turn off. It’s just too brilliant.

4.

I personally started watching Haruhi this year, so when I first saw this video, I had no idea who any of these people were (but I loved the video). Now, at the end of 2009, I have seen everything and am anxiously awaiting the movie.

3.

The Family Mart chime remix fad was started by this video. I couldn’t stop listening to it. Simple and shows you a little bit of how to use a KORG to make amazing music.

2.

The last しも (Shimo) medley video practically introduced me to NicoNicoDouga and essentially prompted me to start this blog. This one, which came out in June, was more like a review of my time on NicoNicoDouga. The joy was unspeakable, and so this takes #2.

1.

While it may look like I’m tooting my own horn here, this remix of our video pretty much crippled me with laughter. By far the most enjoyment I got out of a video this year. Thank you みすとん！

Honorable Mention:

The 韃靼海峡 (Dattan Kaikyou) based MADs were excellent before they started getting deleted. Totally would have made the top 10 if not for that.

Technorati Tags: akeome, あけおめ, けいおん, チルノ, chiruno, Cirno, Electribe, eva, Evangelion, Family Mart, Famima, hammer, Hammer Day, happy new year, Haruhi, K-ON!, keion, KORG, Matsuoka Shuzo, new year, NicoNicoDouga, nicovideo, RED ZONE, ritsu, Shuzo Matsuoka, Tainaka Ritsu, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, touhou, training, 東方

What happens when Santa is seen as a Bodhisattva by a NicoDou obsessed monk?

This is very, very odd. It’s a Buddhist Christmas Service. But, I’m completely on board. Oh, Great Santa-sama! Please free me of worldly ties by giving me presents… wait, that’s not right. Maybe he really gives presents to Christians as a punishment for being attached to the world?

Anyway, this is definitely 6 of the weirdest minutes you’ll spend this Christmas.

Technorati Tags: bozu, buddhism, Christmas, monk, NicoNicoDouga, santa, Santa Claus, service, X'mas

My number one favorite change? The ability to embed videos on any blog. Yes, Yamatologic will now have the NicoVideos embedded right here; no account needed. The draw backs are that the ads are annoying, and my sherpa service isn’t as useful, but you know you want to experience the joy of the site first hand. Click here to get your account.

There is now a menu that you can bring up that give you access to things like もう一度再生 (“Play Again”), この人の他の動画 (“other videos by this person”) or ブログに貼付 (“post to blog”). These are handy dandy. The other ones are less useful to me personally, so I’m going to skip them for now.

The マイページ (“My Page”) has some neat new features. The most notable is the ニコレポ (“NicoReport”). It is essentially a NicoDou twitter feed. However, in keeping with the anonymity of the site, you don’t get to say anything in it, it just registers when you マイリスト (“my list”) a video or one of your videos goes up in the rankings; just little stats really. You can then register other people in your watchlist so that their accomplishments and actions are listed in your report. That plus community postings makes for an active report list!

Speaking of マイリスト, they now have an extra とりあえずマイリスト (Toriaezu Mairisuto) that is just an extra my list that never gets full, just kicks out old videos if there are too many, first in, first out style. I love it since that it essentially what I used one of my lists for anyway! It’s like a temporary queue, so then you can save the ones you really like later in your normal my lists.

The last major change is the ranking page. It’s no longer one long list of the top 100, now it is a crazy grid of the top 20 videos for various categories. It’s information overload, but I think I like it.

So those are the major changes I can think of. If you have questions, bring them to the NicoNicoDouga Help page, and let’s get some walkthroughs of what you want to do made!

Technorati Tags: 9, マイリスト, ⑨, Internet video, memes, My List, new version, NicoDou, NicoNicoDouga, videos, youtube

If you have ever spent any amount of time on ニコニコ動画 (NicoNicoDouga), you’ve bound to have seen the silly little animated gifs in the upper left hand corner.

This is a great little video featuring some of those redone with 東方 (Touhou) characters. Expect to see these avatars around the ‘tubes soon. The チルノ (Cirno) is my favorite. エンドレス⑨ｗｗｗ

Technorati Tags: Animated Gif, chiruno, Cirno, NicoNicoDouga, nicovideo, project shrine maiden, touhou

NicoDou is over! (not really, but still awesome)

Technorati Tags: ニコニコ動画, ニコ厨, foo-san, Fooさん, NicoChu, NicoDou, NicoNicoDouga, nicovideo, recorder

After using it, I can safely say it is better than I expected. I guess the wait was worth it after all.

I have a lot to say, but for those of you with limited blog reading time, here are the main points:

1. Views NicoDou videos
2. Shows comments
3. Publishes comments
2. Available on US iTunes Store
3. Runs over Edge, 3G, and WiFi

Go get it! (iTunes Link)

Remember, you need a NicoDou account to use this app. If you don’t have one, go get one here!

Full review and lots of screen shots after the jump!

Where to start? This program really was worth the wait. From every angle, the app seems to have really had a lot of work put into it. In fact, they also conveniently updated their flash player at the same time the app was released (approved?). I’m guessing they were saving the flash update to go with the app since they share a new design look and some new functions. So rather than thinking of this as just another app, this seems to be a part of their push to move NicoDou to a wider audience.

For those of you who haven’t heard anything about it yet, but are familiar with NicoDou in general, the app is what you would expect; a way to watch NicoDou videos with comments. One thing people were very curious about was whether it would support adding comments.

Click コメントする

Enter your comment

Choose positon, size, and color.

Even on the actual site, people can see your comment!

As you can see, it does let you put in comments, and that’s really the worst thing about the app. It stops the video and opens up a new screen where you can publish the comments. So, what you lose in real time, you gain in function, since you can do all the colors and variations that are normally available as well.

The thing that really surprised me, well, the first thing that really surprised me was that it was freely available on the US iTunes store. I was so worried I would need a Japanese iTunes account to download it. This saved me a lot of worry! So, peoples of the world, can you download it?

Remember, you still need to enter you account info to sign in. This is accomplished by clicking the 設定 (settei, lower right hand corner).

Then click カウント設定

Enter your mail address and password, and hit 確認 in the upper right.

Last, the thing that really surprised me… It works over edge. See, in Japan, the iPhone wasn’t released until the 3G, so they don’t have the 1st gen iPhones to worry about. Even the user interface tells you if you are on 3G or WiFi. And, since I am on really crappy hacked T-Mobile edge, I would pretty sure there would be no way in hell I could watch videos over edge. I was wrong. It works, even over my stupid edge. The YouTube app doesn’t even work over my edge connection! This is the thing that makes me the happiest man on earth. I can now NicoNico wherever and whenever I like. It is a dream come true.

Using it over Edge, which shows as 3G

One last odd thing I noticed was that one of my videos I uploaded “wasn’t available to non-premium users.” I’m not quite sure what that is about, but I’m guessing they restrict unpopular videos for some reason… further research is needed!

Wow. Why aren’t you playing with it, right now?!

Technorati Tags: app, app review, Apple, ニコニコ動画, Dwango, edge, gadgets, iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone Apps, NicoDou, NicoNicoDouga, screenshots, ss, technology, wifi